The National Football League’s (NFL) first free, legally live streamed regular season game is coming, and much to delight of some, and the horror of others, it is being presented by Yahoo!, Inc.

In a statement released Wednesday, Yahoo confirmed that it would stream NFL’s International Series game in London, between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars on October 25.

Yahoo sites that will show the game globally include Yahoo, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Screen and (we’re not making this up) Tumblr.

Officially the price of the deal was not disclosed, but Industry executives familiar with the NFL’s negotiations quoted by Re/Code say Yahoo paid at least $20 million for the rights to stream the game, with the figure being on the high side due to the fact that Yahoo picked up exclusive online streaming rights.

“We’re thrilled that the NFL has chosen Yahoo for this historic opportunity,” Yahoo President and Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer said. “It marks a significant change in the way users can access this amazing content. The NFL and Yahoo have both long engaged football fans around the world. Our partnership provides the ultimate football experience—with digital availability, designed for the modern fan.”

The live stream of the game is the first time a regular season game has been shown online; the Superbowl is the only other NFL game to have been live streamed previously.

Lot of money for potentially little exposure

From Yahoo’s perspective you can only believe the deal has two potential benefits, the first being that it demonstrates that they are able to provide the service, thereby potentially setting themselves up for further partnerships or deals with the NFL or other sports; and secondly as one big brand exposure exercise for Yahoo as fans will visit their properties to watch the game.

It’s demonstration angle is the stronger of the two plays, because when it comes to brand exposure and traffic the deal is an awful lot of money for potentially little exposure.

The game streams at 9:30am in the morning, not exactly peak football watching time, and the kicker: it’s still being shown live on television in Buffalo and Jacksonville, so the most devout fans of the teams have no reason to use Yahoo to watch the game.

It will be interesting though to see if Yahoo releases figures after the game as to how many watched the stream to ascertain whether minor games have a potential audience online, and whether paying $20m+ for the rights was worth it.

Image credit: urbanshoregirl/Flickr/CC by 2.0